Young Joseph
drunk with the champagne
of the stars
that with the sun and moon
did obeisance to him
before the congregation
of celestial lights,
blurted out too early
the secret message
entrusted to him
to the hostile ears
of brethren
seething to see him
in the rainbow coat
bestowed so foolishly
by a doting patriarch;
they sold him to flesh merchants
and his blood-sodden coat
serving to seal a lie,
broke the heart of Jacob
who mourned his loss
for many-a-year.
Joseph learnt too late that Wisdom sits
at the threshold of utterance,
weighing the merits
of speaking or withholding
truth that offends
or gives freedom
to the wise.
Growing up
in the shadow of the sphinx
and pyramid,
in the prisons
and then royal courtyards
of the King and princes
of Egypt,
Joseph, upright and faithful
to the Lord of Hosts,
was given the mystic key
to unlock the dreams
hidden in the mind
of Pharaoh
and to speak forth
the secret message
from the Lord Himself
to save Egypt
from deadly peril
and to prosper it
beyond all lands
with overflowing granaries;
and for this revelation
he was made prince
to sit at the right hand
of Pharaoh
and to bring into being
the vision that the Lord
had given him alone.
Then for the seven
lean years
that followed,
when neighbouring lands
gripped by the deadly hand
of the worst famine
the world had ever known,
came knocking at Egypt’s door
for life-sustaining grain,
Joseph’s brethren slithered in
to beg for grain.
Now in his power
to dispense life or death,
unrecognised,
his brothers did obeisance before him
just as he saw them do
in his youthful dream.
Would he exact just vengeance
or bring them to true repentance
and to the path of righteousness?
But when at the last
he saw Benjamin
his youngest brother,
his heart relented.
Revealing to their great terror
who he really was,
Joseph told them
that in His providence
Yahweh had turned
their unspeakable deed
into the means
of their salvation
from certain death,
that only
the incomprehensible clemency
and grace
of the Divine
had turned evil
into redeeming good
and given them
the fertile land of Goshen
as their dwelling place.
Genesis 37, 41-47
Dr Oliver Seet –
is a member of Wesley Methodist Church and a Board Director of the Metropolitan YMCA.
Background picture by Vitaliy Pakhnyushchyy/Bigstock.com